Freshman (9th Grade) Summer Reading List:
For Students Enrolled in Regular 10th Grade English this September
Alias—Mary Elizabeth Ryan provides a suspenseful mystery and coming of age story. Toby searches to discover why
he and his mother may never live a normal life.
All That Glitters—V.C. Andrews continues a story of a poor-Cajun-girl-turned-New Orleans-socialite Ruby
Landry and the dark, forbidden secrets of their family.
Armageddon Summer—Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville Two teenagers meet during the preparation of their families
for the end of the world.
Beekeeper’s Apprentice—Laurie R. King - Sherlock Holmes takes on a young, female apprentice in this delightful
and well-wrought historical fiction novel set during World War I.
C Is for Corpse—Sue Grafton Detective Kinsey Milhone vows to find the killer of a young man who was under her
protection.
Children of the River—Linda Crew - This powerful novel tells the story of teenage Sundra, who flees with her aunt’s
family from the Khmer Rouge to a small Oregon town.
Cold Fire—Dean Koontz Teacher, Jim Ironheart, is being controlled by some unknown forces. He joins forces with a
jaded reporter to find out who it is and why they’re controlling him.
Dolphins of Pern—Anne McCaffrey - Two boys, one dragonrider, re-establish crucial contact with the sapient
dolphins—the legendary “shipfish” of Pern.
Ender’s Game—Orson Scott Card - After the Earth is twice attacked by aliens, the world government begins breeding
military geniuses, one of whom is Ender Wiggin.
Falling Leaves—Yen Mah - This memoir is an unforgettable story of a courageous woman’s triumph over despair in a
lifelong search for acceptance, love, and understanding.
Jesse—Gary Soto - A young teen ventures on a quest to better himself.
The Kitchen God’s Wife—Amy Tan - The novel relates the story of Jiang Weili (Weiwei) from the time she was six
years old in the China of 1925 through the present, in which she is the widowed matriarch of an extended
Chinese family living in San Francisco.
Monster—Walter Dean Myers - Sixteen year-old Steve Harmon, on trial as an accomplice to a murder, records his trial
in the form of a film script as he tries to sort out who he is and what is real.
Parallel Journeys—Eleanor Ayer, et al - Explores the autobiographies of two people who had different experiences
during the Holocaust and how they survived.
The Return—Sonia Levitin - The trip of freedom by a fifteen-year-old Ethiopian Jew from the Sudan to Isreal.
Shadow of the Dragon—Sherry Garland - Two Vietnamese-American boys confront gangs in their high school.
She Walks These Hills—Sharyn McCrumb - An old woman in a Tennessee mountain community helps trail an
escaped killer.
Talking to Dragons—Patricia Wrede - A prince is secretly raised by his mother in hopes that he can reunite his
kingdom.
Whirligig—Paul Fleischman - Offered a chance to atone for causing the death of young girl, sixteen-year-old Brent
undertakes a rite of repentance, journeying to the four corners of the U.S. Building whirligigs.
You Belong to Me—Mary Higgins Clark - A call-in radio show psychologist becomes tangled in a web of serial
killing.
Sophomore (10th Grade) Summer Reading List:
For Students Enrolled in Regular 11th Grade English this September
The Afterlife—Gary Soto - The novel follows the murder of a seventeen-year-old named Chuy in the days after his death. Chuy
gets to see how his death stirs his community and changes lives.
The Alienist—Caleb Carr - The year is 1896. The city is New York. The hunt is on for a baffling new kind of criminal . . . a
serial killer.
Always Running—Louis Rodriguez (nonfiction) - The true story of a Chicano teenager who tries to break away from gang life.
The Bean Trees—Barbara Kingsolver - Taylor Greer grew up poor in Kentucky in the ’60s and ’70s and earned enough money to
buy a Volkswagen that would take her west to adventures with an adopted Indian girl and illegal immigrants.
Caught Inside: A Surfer’s Year on the California Coast—Daniel Duane - An exciting and informative nonfiction account of a
year spent surfing. In addition to describing his adventures on the water, Duane discusses wave dynamics, the art of
surfboard design, and the Pacific wilderness.
A Child Called It—Dave Pelzer - The unforgettable nonfiction account of one of the most severe abuse cases in California
history. Dave Pelzer shares his story of abuse and how he managed to survive.
First Test—Tamora Pierce – A fantasy genre, Kel is the first girl in ten years to take advantage of the decree that permits girls to
train for knighthood. This is the story of her experience and the people who try to stop her and those who come to her
aid.
How to Be a Chicana Role Model - Michele Serros - A ruthlessly honest and funny nonfiction tale of a Chicana writer searching
for her place in a world where honorariums are hard to come by.
Johnny Got His Gun—Dalton Trumbo - A World War 1 story of an American soldier whose body is destroyed and therefore he
must live totally in his mind.
The Last Shot – Darcy Frey - A nonfiction chronicle of the hopes of four of Lincoln High’s most promising players. By stressing
the game above all else, the young athletes have nowhere to turn but glamorous coaches, slick recruiters, and
million-dollar athletic companies who offer everything—but guarantee nothing.
Montana, 1948—Larry Watson - The summer of a young boy’s twelfth year culminates in life-changing events that affect every
member of the Hayden household, including a self-effacing father, a clear sighted mother, a war-hero uncle, and a Sioux
housekeeper.
Outer Banks—Ann Rivers Siddon presents a story about the friendship of four women through college and into marriage.
Sea Glass—Anita Shreve - The lives of six characters wind together as they face struggles in a beachside community of the New
Hampshire coast following the stock market crash of 1929.
The Secret Life of Bees—Sue Monk Kidd - Set in South Carolina in 1964, this novel tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has
been shaped around the memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. As she flees her home, she discovers a town that
holds the secret to her mother’s past.
Still Life with Rice—Helie Lee - In this memoir, Lee uncovers the secrets of her Korean grandmother’s eventful life: her
childhood and an arranged marriage under Japanese occupation, opium smuggling in China, and flight during the Korean
War.
The Summons—John Grisham - A once-powerful Southern judge writes a summons for his two sons to return to Mississippi, but
he dies before their return and leaves behind a shocking secret.
Tick Tock—Dean Koontz - Tommy Phan finds a mysterious rag doll on his doorstep and then finds himself hunted in his own
home, where the doll grows into a monster determined to kill him.
Turtle Moon—Alice Hoffman - The murder of a baby in a sleepy Florida town affects a bitter policeman, a struggling single
mother, and her extremely angry teenage son.
The Women of Brewster Place—Gloria Naylor - Based on the truths and myths of seven women living in Brewster Place,
an inner-city sanctuary, the novel creates a portrait of the women’s strengths, struggles, and hopes as black women in
America today.
Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo—Zlata Filipovic - In this autobiography, the reader is exposed to war from
the point of view of an eleven-year-old girl. Zlata chronicles her experiences (including the deaths of friends and food
shortages) and her attempts to evade bombs and artillery by seeking refuge in her neighbor’s basement.
Junior (11th Grade) Summer Reading List:
For Students Enrolled in Regular 12th Grade English this September
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton’s tale bout the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer's
impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska is a perfectly wrought book about an era when upper-class
culture was still a mixture of American and European extracts.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X - This is an autobiography as told to Alex Hailey, which presents Malcom X’s
transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate, political activist.
The Awakening— Kate Chopin - The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier and the changes that occur in her
thinking and lifestyle as the result of a summer romance.
Catch 22— Joseph Heller provides satire on the murderous insanity of war. Yossarian, a wise-ass bombardier, was
too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament
Caught Inside Daniel Duane shares his account of a year spent surfing in Santa Cruz.
Ceremony Leslie Silko tells of a young Native American who fights to defeat the demons that have followed him
since his return from WWII.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful retelling of Cinderella is a study in
contrasts: Love/hate, beauty /ugliness, cruelty /charity. Each idea is stripped of ethical trappings, smashed
against its opposite number, and laid bare for examination.
Dragon’s Blood Jane Yolen - Dragons are trained to fight to the death, and two determined teens help free them in
this spellbinding saga. Training a dragon to be a fighting champion is the only way to freedom for fifteenyear-old Jakkin.
A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway presents as unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the
Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.
Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in The Lord of Rings Matthew Dickerson investigates the
importance of free will and moral choices in Tolkien's Middle Earth, where moral victory, rather than military
success, is the ''real'' story. He explores Christian themes throughout, including salvation, grace, and
judgment.
Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood - In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right chlafly/Falwelltype ideals have been carried to extremes in the monotheocratic government. The resulting society is a
feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various
classes.
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez - Fifteen tales vividly chronicle a Dominican family's exile
in the Bronx, focusing on the four Garcia daughters' rebellion against their immigrant elders.
Into the Wild John Krakauer - In April 1992, a young man from a well to do family hitchhiked to Alaska and
walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. How he came to die is the unforgettable story of Into
the Wild.
Kindred Octavia Butler utilizes the devices of science fiction in order to answer the question "how could anybody be
a slave?" A woman from the twentieth century, Dana is repeatedly brought back in time by her slave-owning
ancestor Rufus when his life is endangered.
King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero David Remnick - With telling detail,
Remnick captures the drama, danger, beauty, and ugliness of a generation’s worth of big heavyweight fights.
Life of Pi Yann Martel - After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named
Richard Parker.
The Log from the Sea of Cortez John Steinbeck - In 1940, Steinbeck ventured into the Gulf of California to search
for marine invertebrates along the beaches. This is the day-by-day account of his trip.
The Member of the Wedding Carson McCullers - A young Southern girl is determined to be the third party on a
honeymoon, despite all the advice against it from friends and family.
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez - It is typical of Gabriel García Márquez that it will be
many pages before his narrative circles back to the ice, and many chapters before the hero of One Hundred
Years of Solitude, Buendía, stands before the firing squad. In between, he recounts such wonders as an entire
town struck with insomnia, a woman who ascends to heaven while hanging laundry, and a suicide that defies
the laws of physics.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chobosky - Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in
high school--how to make friends, the intensity of a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring
sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recent suicide.
A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving - Owen Meany is a dwarfish boy with a strange voice who accidentally kills
his best friend's mom with a baseball and believes (accurately) that he is an instrument of God, to be redeemed
by martyrdom.
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen’s story of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet (minor gentry), their five daughters centers on and
the various romantic adventures at their Hertfordshire residence of Longbourn
The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage is the story of Henry Fleming, a teenager
who enlists with the Union Army in the hopes of fulfilling his dreams of glory.
Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man
who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet, Tralfamadore. In a plotscrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating
on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing
of Dresden.
Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury presents a carnival like no other roll into town. Two boys (best
friends Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade) are about to learn the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors as
they confront a nightmarish evil that will change their lives forever.
Song of Solomon Toni Morrison explores the quest for cultural identity through an African American folktale about
enslaved Africans who escape slavery by fleeing back to Africa.
Summer Edith Wharton places this story in the Berkshires, but the season is summer and the story is that of
passionate, forthright and proud Charity Royall (a New Englander of humble origins) and her torrid affair with
Lucius Harney, an artistically inclined young man from the city.
10 lb. Penalty —Dick Francis - Ben Juliard wanted to become a jockey, but found himself playing a role in his
father’s presidential campaign. Ben discovers that politics can be the most dangerous race of all.
Virtual Light William Gibson - Berry Riddell, a former armed-response rentacop, now works for a bounty hunter.
Chevette Washington is a bicycle messenger turned pickpocket who impulsively snatches a pair of innocentlooking sunglasses. But these are no ordinary shades. What you can see through these high-tech specs can
make you rich--or get you killed.
What Girls Learn Karen Cook insightfully depicts the inner lives of girls on the verge of adolescence, and in Tilden,
she has found a narrator both eloquent and observant. What Girls Learn explores notions of family, femininity
and transcendence of love, even in the face of loss.
Wicked Gregory Maguire - Elphaba, better known as the Wicked Witch of the West, is not wicked; nor is she a
formally schooled witch. Instead, she's an insecure, unfortunately green Munchkinlander willing to take radical
steps to unseat the tyrannical Wizard of Oz. Using an appropriately brusque voice for the always-blunt
Elphaba, McDonough relates her tumultuous childhood